Kings vs Coyotes Game Day Forum

It’s game day boys and girls. I am already here, waiting for a table at the Yard House. Surly is on the road and should arrive shortly. My lungs are rested and I am in the mood to kick a desert dog.

I don’t have an instinctive feel for this game yet. What I do know is the Sutter Kings versus the fast paced Coyotes may give itself to a wide open and exciting game. Don’t mistake that with a shinny one. Defense should still rule the day with these two coaches.

I am again disappointed that Jonathan Bernier is not getting the start unless something has changed as I type this.

Coyotes are a good team. Certainly not a team to take lightly. Let’s keep an eye on the powerplay and offense in general to see if the Kings can built on their forward momentum patient puck possession attack style offensive mojo.

… That depends on some things. Who started the last game? How did he play? Is it the front or back end of a back to back? Is it a playoff game? Who are the Kings playing against? Are they an offensive team or a defensive one? Do they get in on the forecheck faster than most other teams do? Do they like to set up shots from the point and flood the middle or do they prefer to pass laterally and set up one-timers?

Oh. I thought you said we had a tough game ahead. Well, whatever – they’re all tough games, right?

If we’re talking about the rest of this month, it’s an easy decision if you ask me. Alternate them.

Bernier goes against Columbus at home. Quick gets Washington, the strongest team in the homestand. Bernier gets Dallas.

Opening up the trip to Canada, Quick gets Calgary, Bernier goes against Edmonton, Quick faces Vancouver, the strongest team on the roadtrip.

Bernier gets Calgary to open the homestand on the 19th, Quick gets Colorado, and Bernier gets Ottawa in the last game before the All Star break.

I would think that at some point, the Kings are going to have to find out what they have in Bernier. They’re not going to find it out with him sitting on the damned bench. I’m tired of the team (and a lot of the fans) who have the attitude of “Quick must start all division games” and using that as a rationale for him starting against a mediocre team like Phoenix.

Columbus has one of the worst records in the league. Dallas has given up 6 more goals than they’ve scored. Edmonton has given up 3 more goals than they’ve scored, and they’ve lost Nugent-Hopkins for a few weeks to boot. Calgary has given up more than 20 goals more than they’ve scored, and they’re particularly poor on the road. Ottawa’s record is deceiving; they’ve given up 11 more goals than they’ve scored.

These are all mediocre teams at best. If the Kings can’t trust Jonathan Bernier to start games against these teams, if the people who lead the team don’t have the confidence to allow their young goalie to prove himself, then who the hell are we fooling as fans to talk about how this team is going to make the playoffs and actually have some success while they’re there?

I don’t see the point of an organization that drafts a goalie in the first round, meticulously prepares that goalie for future success by slowly allowing him to develop through their system, and then decides to not even bother to USE him once he’s in the big leagues. That is a stupid and inefficient way to deal with the resources that this organization produces. There are going to be more seasons after this one. They need to assess ALL of their talent and prepare themselves. They can’t keep doing this shit by the seat of their pants.

I’ve never said Bernier is a better goalie than Quick. Quick is better. He’s a more finished product. What I’ve said is that Bernier deserves an opportunity. He has earned that. There isn’t anything more he can do at this point to develop any further, other than to play goalie on a more regular basis in the NHL. I know what Quick’s numbers are; I know they’re outstanding. What I’m saying is that I feel there’s a goalie on this team who can be equally outstanding that’s rotting on the bench instead of showing the Kings (and the rest of the league) how good he can be.

Right now, the Kings need help up front. They don’t have enough offensive talent to win the World Championship. They’re certainly not going to be able to get much of value if they included Bernier in a deal, because they don’t ever play him. Who wants to give up a good player for a goalie who has played less than ten games this season and has a save percentage under .900? Nobody, and you’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise. There is literally NO reason not to play Bernier on the days I mentioned. I’m not saying that the goalies should alternate for the rest of the season, but they have an opportunity right now to take advantage of a favorable part of the schedule and prepare for their future. There’s no excuse not to do it.

“They really need to do away with fan voting for the all-star game starters. There’s way too many Canadian homers out there.”

… What I can’t really decide is who the game is supposed to be for – the players, or the fans. If it’s for the players, then the players themselves should vote. If it’s for the fans, then the fans should naturally decide who gets into the game. If it’s for both, then the system the NHL has in place is actually perfect.

Does anyone even watch the All Star Game these days? I can’t remember the last time I was interested enough to watch. I even missed the one that was in L.A. I can’t figure out why anyone would even care. I think the best time to play it would be after the season, like the NFL’s Pro Bowl. That way it doesn’t take the time to rest away from those who get the chance to play in it.

Lol. I said to Bobby after the game “I bet JT won’t like that people thought t was boring”.

I thought all but the last 10 minutes of the game and about 3 minutes in the second was pretty fucking boring. I read a Jack Johnson quote too that went something like “It was a boring game but it’s great to win” or some such.

It went beyond a defensive battle. It was an offensively inept battle. Watching teams being unable to execute is not exciting. Like I said, 13 minutes of the game was pretty exciting. The other 47 was anything but.

… I dunno. I came away from it thinking that the Kings played probably their best defensive game of the season, and they made it look easy. If defense is boring, that’s news to me.

Did Quick even have to make anything but routine saves? I think there was one tough save, off of a rebound that he couldn’t control in the first place.

I liked the way Sutter kept everyone’s ice time balanced last night; it was in sharp contrast to the last game against Colorado. Kopitar and Brown got only 18 minutes, Clifford got to play over 11 minutes and threw his weight around out there, Richardson played over 14 minutes and had a pretty good game.

The Kings did a great job of not turning the puck over and not taking penalties. They did poorly on the draw, and they didn’t seem to get many breaks, but played so well overall that neither hurt them much. If I recall correctly they gave up a 2-on-1 but Mitchell came back and broke it up like it wasn’t a thing.

As I’ve been saying for a while now, what’s improved with the Kings since the hire of Sutter has been their attitude; their confidence and their intensity. The defensive play of this team has been as good as I’ve ever seen it. They block shots when they need to, they usually give Quick a line of sight to the puck, they clog up the middle of the ice at a moment’s notice, and they collapse down low like clockwork. It’s been a pleasure to watch.

The defense did do most of Quick’s job for him last night but there were 3 INCREDIBLE saves he made that easily could have been goals.

I suppose we did do great defense. Defense isn’t boring, but watching the Kings clusterfuck of an offense gets old real fast. And we didn’t play too much defense since we had the puck a ton. In the first period the Kings defense didn’t do very well either. The Yotes forecheck hemmed us in our zone frequently and several times they broke through to the middle of the ice. Intermission adjustments luckily shut that down and then the Kings proceeded to keep the puck mostly out of their zone while at the same time being very out of sync in the offensive zone. Weird game and not at all what I would call an exciting game. I can appreciate good defense unless I really feel a threat to e scored on followed by incredible stops or stick checks or some such ( not the case last night), it doesn’t and never will get my adrenaline level up, a prerequisite for me considering myself excited.

I actually disagree with Jacob. I saw 1 great save and two good but expected ones. The “great” one was off a rebound if I recall and Quick kept the rebound in front of him. It was a bang bang play. I didn’t see the other two as being in the same category.

Fair enough. One save was better than the other two, I didn’t mean to say all 3 were of the same caliber, just that 3 saves were beyond ordinary and were close to being goals. One was a “holy shit” save and the other two were “phew, that one scared me for a second” saves.

Even though it was 0-0 the entire regulation it was still an interesting game to me. It was like a giant tug of war and at some point something or someone’s gonna give. Both goalies came up huge. Good to see DD get the game winner. He needed that one. Also loved the emotion from Pens. That actually surprised me. I kinda thought he really didn’t really give a shit but I guess he does.

I think Sutter should move Kopi off to LW and have Richards drive the car at center.

Kings need to backup a truckload of money for Quick and give him whatever he wants.
He’s amazing…and doesn’t get the respect he deserves.
Sometimes staying up to after 1 am (East Coast) and getting up at 6 for work is worth it (Haven’t mssed a Kings game yet0
Tonight I should have gone to bed…
Hopefully Sutter puts MR back at center on Saturday. The experiment needs to be over , it’s not working.

Quick was the gsme for us last night..I kept yelling gdt the man a goal for God’s sake.
he sure did his part..I thought dull game..even with Coyotes speed..yea that line not anything special.
We had about 5 “should have/ even I could have” missed the net shots ..very frustrating.
Least we werrghe ones who came away with 2 pts.
GO KINGS GO!!!

Flipping back and forth between this and the Junior Gold Medal game(which oddly enough was also a 1-0 overtime). Penner seeing some opportunities in the second, and Loki looked like he really wanted the puck in the second and was making some things happen. Can’t wait to get Voynov back and maybe give Bernier a few nights in.

Bernier should definitely play Saturday or Monday. Columbus sucks and Washington is in the East. I haven’t had a huge problem with Sutter’s goalie rotation so far since it’s only been 8 games and Bernier got one of them, which is a higher rate than Murray seemed to play him, but if I don’t see Bernier at least once by Monday night, I will definitely have a problem.

Pretty good defensive play last night. Our offense at times looked like TM era, where we can’t get thru the neutral zone, can’t string together passes etc. Other times we had really good chances, and a more aggressive offensive attack, cycled well and often got it into the slot (our cycle under TM was often not good and they’d often get chased towards the point unable to keep it low and closer to the corner/behind the net and rarely got the Puck in the slot), got some great scoring opportunities but as usual could not finish. Replacing TM was only step 1 Deano. We have been hurting on wing for how long now? Time to let some things go to bring over a good winger. I get the feeling DL is a real life hoarder.